The Damnoen Saduak Floating Market Scam

I have vague memories of people being scammed at the Damnoen Saduak floating market in Bangkok but never really researched it. Thus, when our taxi driver offered to take us on a full day tour for just THB 1,200 (RM 120), I didn’t bargain and thought it was a pretty good deal.

I didn’t want the extras, I just wanted to cram in two floating markets (Tha Kha and Damnoen Saduak) for the day. It takes about 40 minutes to an hour to reach the latter and there’s a reason the taxi driver gave a lot of excuses not to go to Tha Kha (it’s too small, you won’t like it, etc).

Damnoen Saduak floating market is basically a well known tourist trap. It’s what you see on the postcards and has lost it’s original meaning of being a floating market for locals but rather a scam to bring tourists there for the same trinkets and souvenirs you’ll find on the streets of Bangkok.

Tha Kha floating market is the one that locals go to.

Unhappy tourists who were conned before us

Anyway, the way the scam works is that taxi drivers offer you a really good price for a day’s tour (you can hire the cab to go anywhere for the day) and bring you to a pier where you’re forced to take a boat tour. Our driver kept insisting that there isn’t a way to go to the big Damnoen Saduak pier, which isn’t true as we found out.

It took us an hour and you can see lots of salt flats where they farm salts on the way to Damnoen Saduak floating market. It’s quite interesting to see the locals harvest salt and sell it in bulk by the roadside.

We got shuttled to Shang 2 Pier. I later found out that there are heaps of “private piers” like this one – they arrange a commission with the cab drivers to bring tourists here. A woman immediately approached us as we pulled in and told us it’s THB 3,000 per person or THB 5,000 per boat for a 1 hour boat tour of Damnoen Saduak floating market.

That’s RM 500 for the boat!

I said no way and walked back to the taxi driver and told him to bring us straight to the Damnoen Saduak floating market pier. He kept insisting that there’s no roads to go there except by boat. His English was pretty bad but I told him I don’t want a boat tour and finally the woman (who followed us over) said she’ll do it for THB 2,000 (about RM 200) per person.

That’s a ridiculous price and not knowing if there’s actually a way to the pier of the Damnoen Saduak floating market, I finally bargained with the woman and got us a covered motorized boat for a 1 hour tour for THB 1,700 (RM 170) per boat.

I realized later that we could have gotten it for much cheaper had we bargained more but there’s no way out of this scam, the driver will just drive you to different “private piers” which are just fronts for scamming people into expensive boat tours.

The driver of the longboat to Damnoen Saduak floating market was nice though and even helped us take a photo (which we learned some other less scrupulous drivers will charge you for).

Damnoen Saduak floating market is a tourist trap but it’s worth a visit for the experience if you don’t mind paying the over-inflated price. It’s like the Venice of Asia with the canals and waterways. The shops are right beside the canal – it’s now concrete after the tsunami and floods but still interesting to see shops where you literally have to row up to.

There are also various boats selling food and a coconut sugar farm inside.

I liked the coconut sugar – it’s exactly like those brown sweets from primary school except this is a large, hot wok and the taste straight from the paddle is incredibly sweet and nostalgic. They also offer a tour of the coconut factory but we didn’t go for that one.

It’s quite a nice experience sitting in a boat while traversing the waterways of Damnoen Saduak floating market but getting scammed into the boat tour took some of the fun out of it. You can get a (much) cheaper boat hire by getting to the Damnoen Saduak floating market pier itself. The pier bit in that last sentence is the most vital part – that’s where the regular boats depart.

I hear it is near impossible to get a taxi to go to the pier itself since they have lucrative deals to scam tourists into the private piers for the commission (the lady consulted with our taxi driver on the THB 1,700 price before agreeing). There are also tours which scam you into the private piers so be careful of that.

My suggestion is to go to a floating market that the locals actually use e.g. Tha Kha floating market and take a boat to Damnoen Saduak floating market from there. I got quoted THB 200 an hour per boat for a tour (RM 20) departing from Tha Kha before bargaining.

That’s a huge difference from THB 1,700 and closer to the real price. Tha Kha is more of a pier and not the postcard picture perfect floating market you think of but it’s a nice market where practically no one speaks English and meant more for locals. It’ll be hard to convince a taxi driver to go there though.

Ours didn’t want to go to Tha Kha at all until much coercion and asked for THB 100 for lunch which I absolutely refused to give after the scam he pulled. I only gave it to him when he said it’ll come out of the THB 1,200 price we agreed upon (e.g. I’ll just pay THB 1,100) coz he didn’t have any money for lunch.

When it was time to go back, our taxi driver put the meter on so I thought he wanted to scam us again (it’s THB 2,000 from Damnoen Saduak floating market to Bangkok if you follow the meter) but I was quite hostile to him and paid just THB 1,100 and left.

The Damnoen Saduak floating market scam is pretty well documented. Be careful of the private piers and go straight to the Damnoen Saduak pier. If you want a more local experience, get a taxi that’ll bring you straight to Tha Kha and head to Damnoen Saduak floating market from there, which will cost just THB 200 (RM 20) per boat.

I’m always afraid to travel independently to countries with language barrier. It’s either I’ll make sure I have friends there or just sign up with local travel agents before departing.. I know, not a wise traveler I am.

Whoa! Whoa! My eyebrows went up and didn’t come down. Sorry for the nasty experience you had. I feel damn malu for their behaviour as I have all my maternal relatives and friends in BKK. I am quite familiar with the way their crooks and folks think when they see foreigners. You both could still smile sweetly & posed for camera, so I guess you were calm. Agree with Yee Ling that we learn as we go!! My wife said the same thing to me when i kena conned 2-3 times in China over the years. I never seem to learn! LOL

I took the luxurious boat cruise along Chao Phraya River for one whole evening till night where they served fanstatic Thai dinner with live show of Classical Thai Dance & musicians performance. All for only 1500 baht each….Your floating market price was terror and I would have caused a tsunami there!!!

It’s all good – it did take some of the fun out of it but didn’t ruin our trip by any means. We learn as we go, now we know of an awesome way to get to Damnoen Saduak – through Tha Kha floating market!

It’s one that locals actually use, the floating market I mean, although it doesn’t look like the ones in postcards but more of a harbor.

Getting scammed during travels is common, I did during my previous travels but it’s part of the fun (after the fact) and you’re wiser for it.

Unfortunately for this one we couldn’t get out of it – the taxi driver will just shuttle you to different piers and if we wanted out, we’ll have to pay THB 2,000 (RM 200) for the fare with no return trip. I heard a cab driver actually threatened to call police when they scammed a Caucasian (for the fare) but he got out of it coz it’s a hassle to lodge a police report and you don’t want to be tied down in a tourist police station while on vacation. It’s a lose-lose situation so we made the best of it.

The water still looks as murky as when I went many many years ago. It was so smelly then, hope it isn’t now. Nothing much there, really. I thought it was kinda boring…especially when I went at a time when we had to be careful not to eat anything from street or boat vendors. Wouldn’t want to come down with food poisoning.

The first hotel photo looked like Eastin in Makassan? I like the hotel tho they provide no Internet access. I complained about the staff being rude to me and next thing I know I got upgraded to suite and the manager treated us dinner :) p/s: more posts pls!

It’s the final one, the 3rd in 5 days – horrible planning. The first one didn’t even have complimentary Internet and I had to pay THB 600 for 24 hours – 15 minutes before we’re due to shift hotels (didn’t know we’re going to or would have gotten 1 hour or waited).

Sorry to hear about your experience Mel! I thought Eastin in Makassan was alright in terms of service, we got free WiFi too, although it’s supposed to be paid, they just give out the passwords in a huge basket when you ask for it. :D

Yup, we’ve heard good things from people who went to Damnoen Saduak Floating Market using hotel tours for just THB 1,400 per car, all inclusive, including transport to and back, and the 1 hour boat tour.

You should visit the authentic damnoen floating market before 9am. You can go there by your own by using minivan from victory monument @ 90 baht or public bus from southern bus terminal @ 50 baht.

They would drop you on the main road junction and ignore the tout or agent. Walk into the small street about 1.5km or hitch the yellow truck @ 10 baht.

The usual rate quoted is 300 baht per person for motor boat but their route is questionable. Some would skip most main attraction and only hop on the souvenir market. You could get as low as 150 baht per paddle boat that for 6 person inside the authentic floating market.

Drats I wish I read this before getting here to the pier. Cab driver seemed like a nice guy. Won’t even take us now to Tha Kha which I point out on google maps and the road signs. Good thing we haven’t paid it yet. Should just dash out and scam his ass when we get back to town.

Got the similar offer by taxi driver. THB 1.2k for floating market and grand temple. Quoted 1.5k in the pier after series of negotiations. But, after googling ard, we found this blog. Taxi driver refuse to bring us thakha kha. So, we decided to skip the floating market :-). Thanks for the head up.

We have booked the private trip to floaty market and ayutthaya from an agency to skip stupid floaty market scam but when the taxi driver showed up it was a taxi driver and did exactly what is in your text.
We got so pissed off! Told then we wanted to go straight to the pier or to ayutthaya, but they kept trying and we finally agreed on 1100 baht. That tasted very bad and I hated the driver after that.
We booked through the MIDAS TRAVEL AGENCY at Khaosam road, so STAY AWAY FROM IT!
Thanks for documenting it!